Children are often given toys that perform actions or activities planned to provide educational or entertainment benefits. Often the child can turn the toy on and turn the toy off, but has little control of the presentation of the activity or control over the actions the toy is programmed to perform—the toy carries out the pre-planned functions. Nor can the child select which activity or action is to be performed.
Though children's educational software is available that allows an older child to use mouse and keyboard to control an activity, the computer-mouse-keyboard interface is not usable by a younger child. Also, some children do not have consistent access to a computer. Some parents prefer not to allow the child to use a computer due to security concerns. Some software does not engage the child's attention or cannot be adjusted to meet the child's changing needs. Many children's learning programs are not readily available to the parent or child, particularly compared to the quickly and easily available applications offered for immediate download in applications stores. Therefore currently available educational software does not fully meet the needs of the child.
Additionally, a younger child who cannot read cannot execute an activity, which entails choosing a CD ROM, inserting it appropriately into the computer and navigating through the displayed screen prompts to execute the selected activity; the child requires parental assistance. Children like to make their own choices and control their own environment; yet currently available systems do not allow self-directed selection, control and execution of activities by the younger child. Thus, there is a need for a workable system that lets the younger child self-select an activity, self-execute that activity, and control the functions of that activity without requiring help from the parent.
The care, safety and education of a child are top parental priorities. Numerous monitoring and education/entertainment systems have been developed to assist the parent in meeting these goals, yet each is lacking in some feature or aspect. For example, though monitoring alert systems can warn or alert a parent, they do not allow efficient real-time voice and video communication between the parent and child. For instance, if the child is lost, a conventional GPS alert system may notify the parent that the child has wandered off, but will not allow the parent to see there is a picnic table beside the child and, then, to say to the child, “See the red picnic table in front of you? Sit there and wait. I will come right away.”
Also, conventional monitoring systems are generally standalone systems, adding to the large number of varied electronic devices that must be managed, configured, charged and carried by the parent.
Commonly available child monitoring systems include audio and audio-video monitoring systems that receive input from the baby's room and transmit it to a portable audio receiver device. Though the parent in a nearby room is able to hear if a child calls out or cries, these systems are not designed to allow a remote parent (across town or across the country) to monitor a child. Though some monitoring systems can be connected to a home network Internet connection to allow remote parental surveillance from an Internet-connected computer, the complicated setup involving port forwarding and other advanced networking tweaks will deter many potential users—or will necessitate the expense of hiring a network technician. Additionally, these monitoring systems are one-way systems and do not allow two-way communication and interaction between the parent and the child. For example, though the parent at his office computer may be able to see that the child at home is about to pull a pot of boiling water off the stove, he cannot give a real-time voice warning.
Other child monitoring systems are focused on using GPS technology to determine the location of a child. A few of these GPS monitoring systems make partial use of a cellular phone network. For example, the Amber Alert GPS (shaped like a small plastic pod) and the SecuraPAL® Guardian personal locator (shaped like a candy bar style cell phone) are commercially available cellular phone-enabled GPS tracking devices. Both allow the parent to log onto an online application to see recent or previous locations of the child and to manage alerts (text, email or phone). The Amber Alert GPS device can also serve as an audio monitor; the parent calls the device and is automatically connected to listen to the child's environment without notifying the child that audio monitoring has been activated. Similarly, the Nu-M8 tracking device (based on PCT WO 2010/125338 by Bentley) incorporates both cellular transmission and GPS tracking within a bracelet or wristband format, which must necessarily be small to be usable by very small children. The Nu-M8 tracking device attempts to overcome the technical difficulties of the joint cellular and GPS transmissions, of maintaining sufficient battery power to run the device, and of calculating location coordinates in light of the limited computational and battery power in such a small wristband device. However, these GPS tracking devices do not provide efficient parent-child communication. Plus, the child may not be cooperative, as wearing the wristband or carrying the tracking pod is troublesome without an apparent gain from the child's point of view. Additionally, this type of standalone system adds yet another electronic device to the parent's collection of family electronic devices to manage, with inherent monetary costs and time costs (learning to use the device, keeping the device charged, maintaining the device and the like).
Another type of monitoring system, used to detect Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), has a sensor for monitoring health parameters and a transmission method. For example, in US Patent Application Publication US2010/0274104 by Khan, a monitor is attached to a band worn by a child and configured to transmit an alert if the measured parameters are outside of the pre-set parameters. Various communication interfaces are discussed, including transmission of the alert by cellular and Internet communications. However, the device does not provide efficient communication between the parent and child, nor does it have entertainment or educational benefits. Further, the size of the device must be minimized to be worn on the wrist of a child so the size of the battery is small, necessitating frequent charging.
To allow communication between a remote parent and a child, various systems using cellular communication have been developed. Young children cannot manage the complexities of cell phones that sometimes even challenge adult users. Simplified cell phones for children have been developed, such as a commercially available rigid I-Care™ plastic bear-shaped mobile phone with seven buttons. Though it simplifies dialing by having four pre-set buttons (such as mother, father, friend and teacher) and an SOS button, it additionally requires the usage of a call out and hang up button, so appears to only be suitable for children of kindergarten age and older. Additionally, the I-Care mobile phone provides auto-answering to allow the parent to listen to the child's environment. The SecuraPAL® Guardian personal locator discussed above includes a single pre-set speed dial button. Similarly, in China Patent Application No. 200810068428 by Chen, a child's mobile phone with GPS that has a battery-powered motor for moving the limbs, head and mouth is presented. The toy- or pet-shaped mobile phone has a left hand button (“Mommy”), right hand button (“Daddy”), right foot button (“teacher”) and left foot button (“police”), which can be pre-set with dial out numbers by text message. Though the Chen phone uses the cellular system, it cannot be configured by the parent, except by the limited text message function. Certainly, the child cannot self-direct learning or entertainment, as the Chen phone does not incorporate learning or entertainment options for the child.
Communication between a parent and a child can also be provided by computer-connected doll systems. These generally allow the parent to mechanically control a portion of a doll. For example, a parent at a computer in the same room as the child may move the doll's arm to make it appear that the doll is interacting with the child. Kikinis, U.S. Pat. No. 5,746,602 filed in 1996, covers a doll connected to a computer that can tell stories, teach languages, play music, and offer other educational options, as chosen by the parent at the computer primarily by inserting a CD ROM into the computer to execute the desired program, which then activates and/or animates the doll. The Kikinis doll is substantially a computer interface designed for a child, but is limited in its lack of a method to allow the child to select programs, and by its limitation of computer tethering.
Gabai, U.S. Pat. No. 5,752,880, covers the controlling of a doll wirelessly by radio transmission through a computer. A program running on the computer issues a command to a toy, the toy performs the command, and the toy then provides feedback to the computer that it has performed the command. In PCT Application No. WO01069799 filed in 2001, Gabai expanded his computer-controlled doll system to an Internet-controlled doll system having a network-mediated toy-controlling data communication link for controlling aspects of the toy; other optional devices to allow connections to remote computers are mentioned, such as television set-top boxes, cable networks, base station, cellular phone and telephone line connections. Obtaining the correct equipment and setting up this networked situation may not be straightforward. Additionally, this system requires an Internet connection and a means to connect to it, which are not always available. Furthermore, the child cannot self-direct learning or entertainment.
Smart toys have attempted to address the desire for better children's educational systems, but the modes of interaction between a child and the smart toy are not well developed. For example, some references present a smart toy that uses language recognition software, so that children can manage the content they want by speaking to the toy. The limits of this are obvious, however, as even adults suffer from extreme frustration with automated voice answering systems that barely work. Other smart toys involve many cartridges and corresponding books that must be kept together and well maintained to be usable.
One of the more advanced smart toys is presented in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/117,389 by Stiehl, et al., assigned to MIT, and is titled “Interactive Systems Employing Robotic Companions.” The principal device of the system is a robot in the form of a plush doll, preferably, a teddy bear called the “Huggable” in the patent application. The Huggable has a motor and interior working mechanism to move its head, arms, etc. Its overlay is a soft material imitating skin and fur. It is outfitted with sensors or air bladders that enable the Huggable to “feel.” The Huggable's eyes are cameras for video streaming; and it has a microphone and speakers enabling it to hear and speak. Through a web-page implementation of control, the Huggable allows interaction with a remotely-located person, where the user of the robot has a relationship with a remotely located person such as a teacher (foreign language teacher, math tutor, etc.) or a relative (parent, grandparent, etc.) and the remotely located person (known as a “puppeteer”) controls the robot. Though the Huggable plush toy allows viewing, hearing and communicating with a child remotely and provides a means to connect remote relatives and teachers through the Internet, it is tied to Internet connectivity due to the real-time manipulation of the controls of the robot, so cannot take advantage of the benefits of cell phone connectivity, such as a more developed and pervasive communication network, a different price structure, different communication capabilities, etc. Additionally, it does not include security features and does not allow child-directed control or learning.
Cell phones have become ubiquitous, with younger and younger children declaring their yearning for a personal cell phone. Yet conventional cell phones are not adapted to meet the needs of younger children; protocols are not developed to meet the needs of the child and parent. Also, children cannot select the content they want nor execute the programs needed to deliver this content.
Additionally, the number of individual electronic devices specialized for one function continues to grow and expand. The large number of electronic devices normally owned increases clutter and decreases optimum usage. The learning curve to use each one effectively often prevents efficient use. Maintenance, keeping accessories located, and charging of the devices takes precious time from the parent.
Accordingly, while numerous educational toys and monitoring systems have been developed, and while conventional cell phones are readily available, there is an established need for a child-oriented doll companion that allows the child self-directed access to, and selection of, the functionality and applications of the system. The system further advantageously integrates cell phone communication, education, entertainment, alert and monitoring systems in a way that allows convenient usage by the parent (configuration of settings, planning of a daily learning and entertainment schedule for the child, and communication).